 Good morning from Lisbon and a very warm welcome to the launch of the European Drug Report 2021. This is our 26th annual report describing the drug's problem in Europe. And it's already the second that we've written and launched in the unusual circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. We can see this morning that over 400 people have already registered to the event, so thank you very much for being with us this morning. There will be a Q&A session for journalists at the end and we will give you the instructions on how that will work in due course. We're also pleased to announce that we have interpretation available in five languages, so for those who have registered to the platform in advance, you can listen in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese or German. Should you have any technical issues during the proceedings, if you click on the info button at the bottom left of your screen, that will take you to the help desk function. Okay, so those are the housekeeping details. Now it's time to introduce the three speakers. So today we will have with us, and we're very honored to have with us the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Mrs Yilva Johansson. She will be followed by Laura Derigo, who is a member of the EMCDDA Management Board and is chair of the Management Board representing France. And then last but not least, the EMCDDA Director who will be presenting the findings of the report. So without further ado, we will be moving to Brussels and to the European Commissioner. Thank you. So we have the Commissioner. Good morning Commissioner and welcome. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you very much. I'm very happy to be here with you today. So thank you. So please, Commissioner, you have the floor and thank you very much. Thank you. And I would like to start like this. We can only be effective if we base an act on facts. And I think that's why this report is so important. It provides a solid basis for robust actions. Drug trafficking, drug production, and drug addiction are growing concerns. Over a 10-year period, police has seized increasing amounts of drugs year after year. Drugs on all kinds and all types, from cannabis to cocaine, from methamphetamine to MDMA, from amphetamines to heroin. Pointing in part to effective police actions, the last one presented yesterday, but also to increased availability and production. The pandemic did not stop people using drugs. Youth dropped in the first few months of lockdown, but then bounced back. The pandemic at first posed obstacles for people with drug problems. Dependency, harmful use to get help. But thankfully drug services managed to innovate, providing telemedicine and distance services. The pandemic did not stop drug traffickers and dealers. They quickly adapted to lockdowns, travel restrictions, and border closures. Relying less on human couriers, more on shipping containers. Lockdown or not, the supply of cocaine to Europe continues uninterrupted. In 2019, law enforcement seized 213 tons of cocaine, more than ever before. And in Europe itself, the production of cannabis and synthetic drugs continues at a pre-pandemic level. In 2019, member states seized nearly three tons of methamphetamine. Five times more than the year before of this very addictive and very dangerous drug. The pandemic is pushing drug criminals online, reinforcing a trend. Drug dealers are moving from the streets onto social media, taking order via encrypted messaging services, sending drugs to customers via home delivery services. Drug trafficking is an organized crime. In fact, it dominates organized crime. Nearly 40% of criminal groups are engaged in drug trafficking. As the Europas recent SOCTO report shows, organized crime is a growing threat, undermining our societies, operating like multinational businesses, actually, with complex supply chains making at least 30 billion euro in drugs money every year. Undermining our economies by infiltrating legitimate businesses, subverting our societies by spreading corruption, drug criminals bribe their way across borders through airports and harbors, spreading death and destruction. Drug's crime is the most violent of all organized crimes. Traffickers compete for markets and commit arson, shootings, bombings, killing innocent victims in the crossfire. To fight this threat, we need to cut the supply of drugs by disrupting crime groups, cutting off finances, blocking supply routes in and out of Europe, supply by air, by rail or over water, offline and online, dismantling drug production and processing. Our main weapon is the strategy against organized crime I launched in April. We will boost police cooperation across borders. We will speed up and simplify operational information exchange, for example, on fingerprints and DNA and number plates. Follow the money through financial investigations and asset recovery. Fight corruption. Promote digital innovation in law enforcement. Police must always be one step ahead of the criminals. But we can only fight drugs as a criminal threat if we also understand drugs are a social issue and a healthcare issue. That's why the European Union is taking broad action based on the new EU drug strategy and upcoming action plan. Besides cutting supply, we must also reduce the demands for drugs. Through prevention, by reaching out to vulnerable people, to people most at risk, children, teenagers and young people, to help them resist drugs and live healthy lives. Through early intervention, to prevent drug use from developing interdiction and disease. Not by blaming, but by caring and helping. Aiding by society, schools, teachers, sports clubs. We need to focus on female users who face specific challenges like pregnancy, childcare, domestic violence, crime that's been increasing during the pandemic. And we need to prevent drug deaths. In 2019, more than 5000 people in the European Union died of an overdose. So we need to do much, much more. In short, we need to help people stay away from drugs, step away from drugs or to get the help and treatment they need. And we need to continue to fight the criminals. We can only make policies based on evidence, as presented in today's European Drug Report. I want to warmly, warmly thank Alexis and his team at the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction for doing an excellent job. Thank you. Thank you very much, Commissioner, for your contribution and your kind words about our work. So we'll be seeing you shortly for the Q&A session and we'll bring you back on our screens for that. So bye for now and we'll see you shortly. So next we go to Paris and to hear the thoughts of the chair of our management board, Laura D'Arigo. Laura represents France on the management board and she will be speaking in French with English subtitles. So over to Paris for Laura please. Thank you. Sur notre mode de vie, les pays d'Europe et du monde entier ont dû mettre en place des mesures sans précédent pour protéger la santé publique. Tous les aspects du phénomène de la drogue en Europe, notamment la production, le trafic, la distribution et la consommation ont également été affectés par la pandémie. Le rapport européen sur les drogues cette année fournit un aperçu actualisé de ses évolutions. Des nombreux indicateurs suggèrent que la disponibilité des drogues est très élevée en Europe. L'interception d'un nombre croissant de cargaison de cocaïne de cannabis et d'un moindre mesure d'héroïne révèle l'inquiétante infiltration de l'Europe par des groupes criminels organisés qui ont su s'adapter très rapidement aux restrictions liées à la pandémie. L'Europe est aussi devenu une zone active de production de drogue illicite notamment en ce qui concerne les produits de synthèse qui visent désormais à alimenter les marchés européens et internationales. Les plateformes en ligne, que ce soit sur le web de surface ou sur le darknet, sont des plus en plus exploités par les trafiquants de drogue. La complexité croissante du marché pose également de nouveaux défis. La disponibilité et l'usage d'un éventail plus large de substances, souvent très puissantes ou très pures, peuvent représenter des risques accrus pour la santé publique. Il est donc aujourd'hui encore plus essentiel d'unir nos forces au niveau européen et international pour identifier les évolutions rapides dans les méthodes et les vecteurs d'approvisionnement de ces produits, détecter rapidement les nouvelles substances apparaissantes sur le marché, améliorer nos connaissances des modes de consommation et les risques incurus et fournir des services adéquats à tous ceux qui en ont besoin. Mais aussi, tout mettre en œuvre pour prévenir l'usage de ces substances en renforçant notamment les compétences psychosociales des plus jeunes. Leur esprit critique, leur autonomie, leur capacité à résister lorsqu'on leur propose ces produits. La nouvelle stratégie anti-drogue de l'Union européenne pour la période 2021-2025 fournit un cadre solide et complet pour une action concertée visant à protéger et à améliorer la santé et le bien-être et à offrir un niveau élevé de sécurité. Elle réaffirme l'engagement de l'Union européenne en faveur d'une approche équilibrée et intégrée fondée sur des évidences scientifiques face à un phénomène complex. Je me rejouis que la nouvelle stratégie reconnaisse pleinement le rôle joué par l'Observatoire européen des drogues et toxicomanie qui fournit les données actualisées pour éclairer l'élaboration des politiques dans les Etats membres et offre son soutien par le biais de la détection précoce, de l'évaluation de l'aménace et des risques, de la recherche, de l'innovation et de la perspective. L'Observatoire est donc un outil précieux tant pour les décideurs que pour le professionnel. Il nous permet de confronter nos expériences et d'identifier les méthodes et les pratiques efficaces qui peuvent utilement s'adapter à d'autres contextes. Je tiens à remercier tout particulièrement le directeur de l'Observatoire et l'ensemble de son personnel pour ce rapport de grande qualité produit une fois de plus dans un context difficile. Mes remerciements vont également au point foco-nationaux, au comité scientifique de l'Agence et à tous les partenaires nationaux, européens et internationaux qui ont contribué à enrichir cette analyse. Je salue leur engagement. Les défis continuent d'évoluer, tout comme notre réponse commune. Le travail de l'Observatoire est crucial pour assurer que les politiques en matière de drogue et conduits addictives soient fondées sur la meilleure analyse possible de la réalité et contribuent ainsi à préserver la santé et la sécurité des citoyens européens. Les rapports d'aujourd'hui montrent à quel point des informations scientifiques et actualisées sont essentielles pour suivre le rythme des nouvelles menaces et pour identifier les domaines nécessitant une action rapide. C'est la valeur ajoutée évidente que l'Observatoire rapporte à l'Europe et qui devrait être renforcée dans les années à venir. Je vous remercie pour votre attention. Okay, thank you very much, Laura, for your presentation. So it's now time to give the floor to Alexi Gousdale, who will present the key findings of the report on his reflections. Thank you very much. Over to you, Alexi. Thank you very much, Cathy. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. First of all, thank you, Laura. Thank you, Commissioner, for your support. Are drugs today different from what they were 10 or 20 years ago? To answer to these questions, we present you with a comprehensive reporting package with the trends and development report, the statistical bulletin, and two supporting publications, one on benzodiazepines, the other one on the transporter report on the COVID-19 impact on the drug situation. We are facing new challenges in Europe today because of the complexity of the patterns of drug use and because of a resilient, very resilient drug market. First of all, have a look at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Commissioner already presented some of the results. We're just compliment saying that indeed the drug market is more resilient than ever and is digitally enabled. The pandemic has boosted this tendency over the last 12 to 16 months. One sign of this is the fact that despite the pandemic, despite the lockdown, we had 46 new psychoactive substances detected last year, which means one per week, and out of the total of 830 substances we monitor through the early warning system on drugs in Europe, 400 of them appeared last year somewhere on the territory of the European Union. We also observe a shift potential between nightlife and home life. Obviously, we look for what further changes following the end of the lockdown in most of the EU member states. And finally, we have seen a huge increase in the consumption and in the detection of benzodiazepines, either legal or illicit benzodiazepines. Just to give you one idea, through the early warning system, we have detected 30 new benzos and over the last seven years, 80% of them appeared on the market. Second challenge, to illustrate what those changes mean for the society, there are three key points. The first is cannabis. The second is cocaine and then finally drug production in Europe. Talking about cannabis, the consumption remains stable, but at very high level. What is new is that we observe an increasing concentration of THC in cannabis resin that is now reaching an average of 24%, and in some cases, it goes up to 28%, while the concentration in THC of herbal cannabis is around 10%. The second point is that we see the apparition of new products coming from outside the European Union, such as edibles, which are food that is produced, including cannabis and THC, but also what are called illiquids, those liquids for vaping. Last year, in February for the first time, we detected on the European Union territory the first illiquid that is used for vaping and was containing 95% of THC. Finally, there are new risks appearing, still not fully assessed if it is a new trend or if it is something that will disappear with the apparition of herbal cannabis spread with synthetic cannabinoids, which increase dramatically the potential risk for intoxication for the users. And then, of course, we have CBD products and low THC, that remain an important challenge in many member states. Let's have a look now at cocaine. For cocaine, the commissioner highlighted the fact that we have a record of seizures in 2019 and 2020. What we also observe is that there is an increased purity. Over the last 10 years, the purity of cocaine has increased by 57%. What we also see is that the EU is becoming in a transshipment area, which means part of the huge quantities of cocaine entering in Europe are continuing to the Middle East and to Asia. And then, finally, it's important to highlight that, yes, there is an increased use of cocaine in the European Union, thus there is a period of latency that can go up to eight, nine years between the moment someone starts using and then needs and goes for asking for help and for treatment. We cannot yet see the full impact of this increase of use, except that increasingly in many cities, we see an increase in the consumption of crack cocaine. The third challenge is created by the drug production in Europe that is becoming more important. In 2019, 370 laboratories were detected and dismantled. We observe a high-strength MDMA between being produced, MDMA, or ecstasy. 20 years ago, we launched an alert for the elephant pills that contain 60 milligrams. Today, the average content is around 180, and in five cities, we detected up to 370 milligrams of MDMA in those pills. But we see also an increase in the production of amphetamine and in the recent years, a dramatic increase in the production of methamphetamine. Most of them for export to other regions of the world, but of course, with the risk for an increased consumption in the European Union. And this is why there is a harmful potential for health. So what are the consequences, the likely consequences of that? I think we are just in front of the potential perfect storm. Huge pressure from the market on the consumers to increase the number of consumers and increase the quantities being consumed. The post-COVID-19 economic recession will have a dramatic impact on the already most vulnerable populations. The negative impact of COVID and lockdown on the mental health of the population in general, again, impacting, especially the vulnerable groups. And then the risk for involvement of more young people in drug-related directly or indirectly criminal activities. And the commissioner mentioned very rightly, drug-related violence, corruption, and finally, we cannot forget the risk for the environment. In a summary, today, the drugs are everywhere. People using substances or presenting an addiction behavior are everyone. Everyone of us can, at some stage in his or her life, having experience of a use or abuse or dependence on substances. And this is one of the key changes compared with 30 years ago. Today, drug use and people who are using drugs are not only corresponding to the profile of the more classical person injecting heroin. It covers a much broader range of situations, so we need to adjust and adapt our policies to that new reality. And also, it's reflected by the fact that everything can be used as a drug today. So what can we do? We need to do the right thing. The first thing is to implement the use strategy and the action plan that will be adopted in a few weeks' time. And this strategy is very important because it's based on the fundamental rights the heart of the European values that are part of the Lisbon Treaty and that mean that everybody in Europe has the right to appeal for the respect of their fundamental rights, including people who are using drugs. The second point is the balanced approach, combining law enforcement, public security and safety together with public health. Some people like to oppose and to say, you need one or those, no. They are like this liquid yin and yang. If you push one policy only in one direction, it can only lead to a disruptive scenario. And finally, the drug services need to make sure that there will be not those who will pay the bill for the cost of the COVID-19 pandemic. So together, let's make sure that we are ready for the next one. Over to you. Thank you very much, Alexi. So now we're going to open the session for the questions and answers and we're going to bring the commissioner back from Brussels. So I'll just give you the instructions on how the question and answer will work. In the top left of your screen, you have an icon which says Agenda. So if you click on that, that will take you to the agenda where at the bottom you'll see questions and answers for journalists. Click on that, and then you have a button which says Ask a Question. And if you could write your questions in English, and obviously for those who have registered, you will have the interpretation for that. So yes, and if you could please write your name, your media organization, and for whom the question is addressed. So now if we can bring the commissioner back on our screens, hopefully that will work. Yes, that's great. Welcome back, commissioner. So the commissioner will stay for two questions. She has another engagement, so we will begin with the questions for the commissioner. So the first one that we received is from a specialized magazine in Portugal called Revista Dependencias, and it's from Sergio Olivaida. And his question is, what can the EU do to best combat drug trafficking? So over to you, commissioner. Thank you. Thank you. There is actually a lot we can do, and there's a lot we are doing already, but we can of course step up. I think it's a good example as what was presented yesterday. Yesterday at Europol together with FBI, the Swedish police, the Dutch police, and also six other member states presented a very sophisticated and huge operation called the Trojan Shield, which already have, where they have this encrypted mobile phones and they have been following high-level criminal groups for 18 months, and they could now arrest already 800 people, and they have seized already 32 tons of drugs and a lot of money, a lot of other things, and they have prevented a lot of murders. So I think this kind of police cooperation, a sophisticated police cooperation, is the most important way to fight the illicit trafficking and dealing with drugs. And that's to facilitate that. I presented in April an organized crime strategy, and that contains how we can facilitate a better and smoother and swifter police cooperation. For example, Europol have now, we have proposed a new mandate for Europol so that they can process big data. For example, it is Trojan Shield, they have 27 million messages. To deal with that huge amount of data, many member states do not have that capacity themselves. That's why Europol come in and can help member states to process big data. We have also proposed a swifter exchange of information that will come later this year with a renew so-called PROOM decision so that police can easier find whether there are a hit in another police register in another member state, for example on DNA or fingerprints or maybe even photos that we should put into that. I will later this year present the new EU police cooperation code to set a European standard for police cooperation. We have also proposed that Europol should have an innovation lab where you can use the latest technology and develop new tools to fight high-level criminal groups. My colleague Murad McGinnis will later come this month with a package to fight money laundering which is also very important to fight the drug smuggling. So these are examples on how we can... We're already doing a lot what that was presented yesterday with this very successful cooperation also with the US, but also what we can do more to facilitate police cooperation. I will later this month come to Lisbon to meet with my counterparts in the US administration, the US Secretary for Homeland Security and the Attorney General. And of course this will also be an area where we will exchange views on how we can better cooperate between the European Union and US in this aspect. Thank you. Okay, thank you very much Commissioner. So the second question that we have for you again from the same journalist is how do you see the role of the EMCDDA evolving to counter drugs in the EU in future? Well first the agency is already doing an excellent job. I must say that and it's very appreciated by Member States. So it's important that the agency can continue doing what they are doing but we are of course also looking into areas where we can strengthen and broadening the mandate for the agency. Areas that we are looking into are for example if there could be a role for the agency to have a real-time monitoring of the drugs market. So being able to give their latest update in real-time to Member States how the drug market is evolving and that's an area where there could be a use of the special expertise from the agency to help Member States to be prepared and to act and police forces in different Member States. We are also looking into whether there can be a role for the agency to look, the forward-looking role to help also what we heard here from Alexis saying that there's one new drug being identified every week one new substance being identified every week. So a little bit forecasting what is probably going to happen in the drug markets and helping Member States to prepare and to prevent when new drugs for example probably will be introduced into the European drug market. So these are areas we are looking into whether we can strengthen the mandate for the agency but I also would like to stress that they are already doing an excellent job but should also be able to continue what they are already doing. Okay thank you very much Commissioner for your contributions. We know you have to leave us now but we hope to see you again soon in Lisbon and thank you for being with us today. So see you soon. Thank you. Thank you Commissioner. So we have a few more questions that have just come in on the iPad. So the next one I'm going to read out is from Inder Bugarin from an El Universal in Mexico. He has a cannabis question for Alexi which is cannabis is the most widely used illicit substance among Europeans and year after year we see an increase in the THC content. The same goes for adulterated cannabis alerts are on the rise. Isn't it just better to regulate like in the United States? Does the EMCDDA have the elements to conclude if the American model is successful or not? Thank you very much Inder. Muchas gracias. I think it's a very good question that illustrates what is the complexity of drug policy today because actually it's not only a question of being either illicit or illicit. There is a set of questions that need to be addressed whatever the political option that is taken. What the EMCDDA has done we have published in January a special report analyzing drug policies in the Americas which means not only in the US but in Canada, in Uruguay for instance the report stresses that not only there is a variety of regulatory models in the Americas but you have a total of 11 alternatives to a pure prohibitionist approach. So it's also the report illustrates that what matters is to define as much as possible on the basis of evidence what is the stated objective of the policy and then also the report highlights the fact that it's extremely important to define what will be the criteria for evaluating the impact and preferably to have a first assessment of the situation before the legislative change is being made. We at EMCDDA our role is to provide and support the evidence highlight also what are the policy issues that need to be addressed independently from the final choice and we also of course provide full support to the member states and we follow the situation also inside the EU and I would like finally to highlight that the alternative to extreme prohibition is not only legalization you can see for instance in Portugal they have 20 years of experience of decriminalization of the use of any substances that is an integrated part of a more comprehensive national drug policy that in 2016 at the Jungas was confirmed by the INCB as being fully compatible with the UN conventions so we have a lot of things to learn from a lot of things to follow and we will continue to do so providing full support to the EU member states and the EU institutions. Okay thank you Alexi so the next question that we have is from Rory Watson who's a freelance journalist in Brussels this is a UK related question and there are a few others coming in on the chat on this subject but his question is what is the downside of the UK absence in your work and is there any chance of the UK joining the EMCDDA again or participating in its work in the future? Well thank you Rory for the question that's a very painful point for us at EMCDDA as you know we first have lost because of Brexit a broad range of excellent fantastic experts and colleagues including the national focal points to the EMCDDA there were two eminent scientists from the UK that were members of the scientific committee of the Centre we are also losing the direct access to very useful data whether on new psychoactive substances or on toxicity or on recusing the general population especially the information regarding people who are in treatment where the data sets are of very high quality in the UK and also the situation regarding drug related death is extremely worrying in the UK in particular in England and in Scotland and we are losing this connection and this daily dialogue including in the context of the early warning system on new psychoactive substance so for the moment I'm not able to tell you if and when the UK may be back in this EMCDDA and RETOX family of course we would be very pleased to start again the cooperation with them but this is a matter that is part of the relationship between the EU and the UK and I'm afraid that the initiative first should come from the UK towards the EU if they are interested to come back in our family okay thank you Alexi the next question comes from Politico Europe from Carlo Martuccelli and his question is on the point of economic recessions what do we know about the link between economic recession and increased drug use thank you that's a very challenging question indeed there are different ways in which the economic recession can have an impact on drug use first of all the fact that people who had access to substances of better or higher quality may not have the means the financial means anymore to access those substances could push them towards the use of more toxic and more dangerous and potentially more lethal substances that's that's one of the likely or possible impact another possibility is that people who are already suffering for some vulnerabilities being social or psychological vulnerabilities may be facing an even more difficult situation because of the economic recession because they would lose their job there is also the impact of the pandemic on the mental health in the population which could push them towards substance use that was not the case before for them and again as the report shows there is an increase in the use of an availability of plenty of substances we have mentioned benzodiazepines certainly there is a topic that we need to follow and continue to monitor that's also the case for other substances that are more chemical or synthetic and finally the third risk is that people from social economical vulnerable groups may be pushed by the crisis to find alternative sources of income a bit on the model of the county lines that we have seen first in the UK and that have spread to other countries in the EU in which organized crime groups are using young people to push and convey the drugs from the big cities to the rural areas so there is a potential risk of involvement of some people in more criminal activities thank you very much Alexi so the next question comes from Germany from Deutsche Welle the question is you state that drugs are everywhere and that harm reduction should be at the core of drug policy and further keeping in mind that people who are using drugs enjoy rights as well is there any way to deal with drugs other than criminal decriminalization and legal legalization coupled with strong regulation thank you for the question that's that's one of the things that have appeared as being a top question during the pandemic and I'm sure this will remain a very important question at the level of the European Union for the years to come and I would say there is one word for me that illustrates both the challenges and the way we can answer to them and its co-production it's inclusive policies and it's the fact that in many instances sometimes for the first time during the pandemic the clients from the treatment services or from the harm reduction programs have been considered as partners like the medical director of a program in Bergamo was saying in one of our webinars he explained that because the centers were closed or could not deliver the same services to their clients they reached a gentleman agreement with their clients I think if we are capable in the European Union to see people who are using drugs learning the lesson that people who are using drugs is not only the injecting in users who also deserve to be associated and involved but more broadly many other people need to be associated to have better services including better harm reduction services and the message we receive from the field is twofold the first is most of the result and positive results during or despite the pandemic they have not been the effect of only the effort of people working in the drugs field but also is the result for other social programs that's one of the message we receive from associations of professionals like Unath in Spain and the second thing as I said is that both everybody people who are using drugs and the people from the services would like to see that a lot of the innovations that have appeared during the pandemic will not be lost in the post-COVID but also learning from the lessons from the last economic crisis caused by the subprime they want to make sure that they are not going to pay the bill for the COVID-19 pandemic okay thank you Lexi the next question comes from Spain so it's from El País Andrés Morenza and he would like to know there is an increase in the variety and origins of criminal groups involved in drug trafficking in Europe is there any discussion about equating or normalizing the penal codes of the different European countries for mafia criminal groups or narco trafficking groups so is there any discussion about equating or normalizing the penal codes of different countries for mafia criminal groups narco trafficking which is very good question too and I can link the question and my answer to what was presented by the commissioner first of all the EU has adopted recently the European strategy on organized crime and on security which is aiming at joining the efforts and coordinating the efforts to fight organized crime all over Europe and as the commissioner said and as was presented by our colleagues from Europe all yesterday it's global and cooperation has to be global and international and there are of course a lot of obstacles to that still there is one limitation at the European level is that most of the competences are in the hands of the member states with full respect of subsidiarity and of the choice and the political orientations in each country so I'm not sure it is the goal to have a single penal approach but over the last 25 years there have been plenty of initiatives to be closer and to have a joint approach for instance it's about the minimum penalties for drug trafficking that have been agreed between the member states already more than 10 years ago so very important steps have been made in that direction today one of the challenges are associated to the cyber crime and the increasing involvement of internet and the dark net in drug trafficking and in organized crime in general and it is linked to two points the first one is about of course the issue of encryption encryption is essential for all EU citizens we cannot present encryption only as a problem that's the guarantee we need as citizens that our personnel and health data or financial data are well protected at the same time the challenge for the organizations fighting against organized crime is that encryption should not be give the highway of total impunity for organized crime and thanks to the Troy and Orr's operation that was presented yesterday there are initiatives that have been taken the second challenge is that because of the ever-growing importance of internet based or dark net based criminality the importance and the challenge is to be able to not only to find evidence of the criminal activities but also to find a way to decide from which jurisdiction those offenses or those crimes are depending and this is one of the projects objectives on which our colleagues from Eurojust and together with Europol and other agencies and other international organizations and the member states are working for the moment thank you Alexi we have a follow-up question from Politico Europe from Carlo Matuccelli again so he's asking can you elaborate please on how drug traffickers and drug dealers adapted to restrictions using digital tools okay that's a very interesting case because this is first something we learn not first hand second hand what we have observed last year there were two phases the first one of course brutal lockdown in most or if not all the EU member states or at least not exactly at the same time which means at some stage nobody in the streets a lot of controls even more than before so circulation more difficult very difficult situation for homeless people who could not stay in the street very difficult situation for those who live in or from the street and therefore also difficulty for dealers and there what we have seen and what was reported including through the focus group the online focus groups we organized and the web survey is the fact that they found new and innovative ways to continue to deal without while reducing the risks it's a kind of harm reduction from the side of dealers which means for instance agreeing to through messenger or encrypted messaging to about what is the place where the drug will be made available and then exchanging the GPS coordinates so there was no physical presence concomitant physical presence at the same place with the product or with the dose that was bought here what I think it's important to realize is these examples are illustrating once more that we don't speak about only one type of people who are using drugs because those who are most vulnerable they don't have any smartphone they don't have easy account to access to internet or on the dark net so also for harm reduction interventions the services were sometimes using a basic telephone but you can do a lot of things and be helpful so for some part of the public that is using substances of course with an access to internet to some messaging a telegram or signal or any others they made their way to find out where they can get their dose some dealers and even some NGOs have been encouraging people to stockpile the quantities they would need in advance of the pandemic so this was during the first phase after that what we have seen is partly a dematerialization of the deals which mean electronic payment not no cash because in any case this was not possible or too risky to circulate with the amount of money in the street with that cash and we have seen also later when business was becoming again a bit as usual that some of those new ways of dealing and doing business on drugs have remained still there is a huge diversity and I think that as we talk also about a huge variety of different populations and vulnerable populations we certainly cannot conclude that now everything will be fully digitalized for everybody and certainly there will be alternative solutions and I would say what I expect is that in the coming two three years at least this will be still a kind of a hybrid mode where there are benefits for the side of the dealers and some groups of users to continue to use more digital services certainly they will not go backwards but there is a certain part or substantial part or proportion of the customers that has difficult access to those services and certainly from the side of the dealers and producers they don't want to lose that market so they will adopt also some kind of a mix model Okay thank you Alexi so we have two questions from the Netherlands coming up in two from Portugal so I'll take the first one from the Netherlands which is from Marco Visser from the Dutch national newspaper Trou he says is it possible to decrease the demand for drugs to zero and if not what is an acceptable level of drug use That's the five euros or ten euros question a difficult question thank you for the question I think first of all what the evidence shows us the last 25 or 30 years since the MCDDA was created and since we collect and monitor the situation is that a world without any use of anything is just not possible because it's not only about the offer and the demand it's about we human being how we deal and cope with different situations so the question is total full eradication I think at least the level of the European member states this is not considered as something really likely the most of the policies including the EU strategy strive for a reduction of drug use and reduction of the negative consequences both for people who are using drugs and for the citizens and for the population for the rule of law but the full eradication is I would say the ultimate hope but certainly not a short-term objective so and what we also observe is that what is considered as normal today by some citizens some people using drugs up to five or 10 or two years ago was not considered as normal was not yet mainstream and what we see is that the market is changing very much so both the market influences the users and the users and patterns of use are also partly having an influence on the market you come from the Netherlands under the Dutch presidency there was a meeting of the national drug coordinators in Amsterdam and we had a meeting including a visit to a coffee shop and it was very interesting to learn from the manager of the coffee shop that while some of the users coming to the coffee shop have the choice with the range of different varieties and potencies especially those who come who came from abroad were systematically choosing those with the highest potency so this trend is something that we see for many substances many addictive behaviors we don't have a perfect explanation why is it so but certainly it contributes if people were not buying those substances today or maybe tomorrow the dealers would configure a different offer of products to meet those needs so I'm afraid there is no simple or easy answer to that certainly what is important is also to base as much as possible the assessment of the risks and the assessment of what we consider as being acceptable or not based on facts and on evidence still and I will finish on that what is extremely worrying to us is the fact that and again I think it's because the when we speak about drugs people think only about the old image of the injecting heroin user as 30 years ago that a lot of people who have a real addiction problem don't see they have it and spontaneously they can tell you yeah I'm not injecting heroin so what are you talking about so I think the challenge here is there is a reduced perception of the risks in some parts of the population that is based on wrong assessments and and the huge availability of drugs today that is the you just availability ever calls for more and more appropriate better prevention programs together and in each and every country okay thank you Alexi so we have another question from the Netherlands this time from Stephen Kompier who's a freelance journalist he says is there any increase in the use of crystal meth in the EU lots of labs are being found for example in the Netherlands another emerging problem in the EU the the methamphetamine the labs and thank you for raising this question because there is a very interesting figure I inform you that there were 370 labs that had been dismantled in 2019 out of those 370 there were 267 labs that were for methamphetamine and if I'm not wrong in 2019 there were 8 or 9 of those labs that were found in the Netherlands and last year there were 32 so what we can say about this is from the seizures from the cross indicator the analysis we conduct it seems that most of the production so far but not all of it is going to Asia Oceania but also to the Middle East including there have been a few big seizures of pills that were being sold as Cap-Tagon even we know that actually this is not the same substance as the real chemical Cap-Tagon as it was in the past so having said that one of the biggest concerns again is in the front or at the eve or a much bigger economic recession than what we have had in 2008 following the subprime the potential for a push from the market from the producer to make available crystal meth in Europe to the weakest or most vulnerable potential customers is a risk that we should not underestimate okay thank you so we have two more questions left and that will probably take us to the time that we have the next question is from so both are from Portugal the next question is again from Revista Dependencias and they say in 2020 46 new drugs were detected in the EU what characteristics do they present and in which groups do they belong? thank you I think it's a oh no so amigo Sergio gave you a ultimate question with obrigado I think it is very interesting to see what is the overall composition of those substances detected if you look to the report you will see that the various categories of substances there is an evolution over the years and that's one of the points that makes us believe we can much we can meet the requirements presented by the commissioner by saying that we need to be able also to look forward to have some forecasts to maybe maybe not predict but explain what we expect to be maybe one of the next tricks what do I say that because I mentioned the increase in the discovery of new benzodiazepines or fake benzodiazepines on the European market but if you look at the different groups of substances that were discovered last year they are psychostimulants they are some hallucinogens but here for answering more concretely to you I would take the example of the synthetic opioids until three to four years ago we have the biggest problem we are with the category family of opioids that are called the fentanyls and you probably know that fentanyls are killing still last year were killing between 60,000 and 70,000 people in the US in the EU today if we look at the data from the early warning system talking only about the new substances only one of the 10 synthetic opioids was a fentanyl which probably reflects some impact of the legislative measures that have been taken at EU level with the support and contribution of the EMCDD early warning system but also for instance the measures that have been requested by the EU and by the US to China as most of the fentanyls are and were coming from China but what we see is that there are new molecules of synthetic opioids that are appearing on the market and frequently we first detect them through the early warning system before some of them may become or not mainstream so those changes and I send you back to the report to have the precise number for each group and subgroup of those substances but it illustrates that we still have a lot of psychostimulants a lot of synthetic cathinones some of them being injected and this allows me to highlight the fact that injecting drugs is not only associated to error in use of course injecting drug use has reduced dramatically in Europe but it still exists and today it doesn't cover or relates only to error in use it's about cathinones in some cases even if it is very minor proportion you have people who are injecting cocaine for instance so certainly we need to keep an eye on the possible evolution knowing that the availability and the purity of heroin for instance is also dramatically increasing in the last two, three years Okay, thank you so we have one question we have time for one question at the end so this one actually comes from a Portuguese NGO not from a journalist this time it comes from Rui Coimbra who is from Casa Portugal he says great event thanks what can be the role of users in managing and building their own and their community's health so what can be the role of users in managing and building their own health and their community's health well I think thank you Rui for the question I think it's a key point that relates to what I said about one of the key lessons learned from the pandemic we knew it already before but the pandemic or during the pandemic it has showed it was even more important it's about the inclusive policies and the inclusion of the clients or people who are using drugs as partners in the design and implementation of the services and I was participating in one seminar organized by another Portuguese NGO online a webinar a few weeks ago and one of the topics that were discussed about also how could we we at national or at European level provide some kind of certification or yes, certificate of education to people who are using drugs to allow them to be included in the organization and provision of services I know that's one of the questions you have been discussing in Portugal it has been discussed in other countries one of the things EMCDD also is exploring for the moment after consultation and dialogue with some national or European networks including the correlation network are raised the possibility or at least to explore the possibility to associate people who are using drugs from those different programs to a training about scientific writing it may look a bit surprising or maybe ridiculous but not at all because actually one of the key messages that we received from people who are using drugs and for some of the main actors in those community based programs is the fact that it's very difficult for them to have an access to publication in scientific journals and this is why I offered to study to explore the possibility and to see how we could help them to write better or to get support to scientific writing to allow them to better share their experience also in the scientific journals because they contribute significantly to improve the evidence and the last example I would like to give you and I'm very very proud that we at EMCDD we started these three years ago is the fact that for some of our publications now we consult, we associate people from the field including some people who are using drugs before we finalize the publications and before we launch them the next example will be at the end of this year when we are going to launch the next European guide on health and social responses so certainly we are going to meet again very soon okay thank you very much so we've come to the end of the Q&A so we're out of time now so if you've submitted your question through the platform and you haven't had an answer yet we'll get back to you on those questions during the day and also if you have further questions throughout the day please do send them to press at emcdda.europa.eu and we'll get back to you on that we do have a team of experts at hand today who are answering questions according to their subject area and language groups so we hope to be able to help you throughout the day so thank you all for having joined us thank you to our distinguished guests speakers thank you also to our technicians and of course the interpreters and everybody who helped to put this event together so for now that's goodbye from Lisbon, Paris and Brussels hope to see you again next year and the press conference is now closed thank you very much thank you, bye bye, obrigado you